Photojournalist Goldblatt, who documented apartheid, dies aged 87

FILE PHOTO: South African photographer David Goldblatt poses for a photo during an exhibition in Gothenburg, Sweden, November 25, 2006. REUTERS/Moa Karlberg/File photo

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Renowned South African photojournalist David Goldblatt, who documented the impact of apartheid on the lives ordinary people, died on Monday from cancer aged 87.

Born of Lithuanian immigrants in Johannesburg’s gold reef, Goldblatt gained international recognition in the 1960s and 70s as apartheid laws took hold in South Africa, culminating in the 1976 Soweto youth uprising.

His later work in the democratic era recorded the inner city lives of middle class residents, both black and white.

Goldblatt was awarded the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2016 and a feature-length documentary on his life premiered last year.

Goldblatt’s photographs showed the “quiet, yet equally poignant features of the brutal apartheid regime,” said the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, which has exhibited much of his work over his 50-year career.

Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Heavens